


Not  a burden

by HoshisamaValmor (HannibalCatharsis)



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Drabble, Father-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 11:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12188763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannibalCatharsis/pseuds/HoshisamaValmor
Summary: What a kid can do to one's life.





	Not  a burden

This kid, for real.

This tiny hurricane of a girl just came into their lives, even bringing a clear deadline of the time they'd have to put up with the extra weight and strain (or rather, a clear destination point. The time to take her there was unbelievably and unrealistically underestimated by Joel.)

With Tess gone, it just... the burden became his.

And by then, the burden weighted differently.

Not the sharpness, rockhead stubborness, foul mouthed, exponentially unproportional teenage irreverence. Just the presence.

The very presence felt different.

The absense.

It weighted. Whenever they had to be separated to cross a path, there was a different straining, cold on his gut. It only eased when he saw the little devil or when he heard those ever lively, ever cheerful spats.

To think they would get separated permanently, one way or another, caused a feeling of missing, a void filled with pain.

Great, as if he needed more suffering, more to worry about.

Joel knew the feeling. The sense of protection, of pride over small or great achievements, even if it was something as simple as a compromise on a new trinket, or seeing her go study without being ordered to - staying hidden when told to, holding her own against adult armed men. He knew the indescribable feeling -pain- of loss.

The ever present crushing void, slowly, held hands with the headaches, the stress, the pride and care. The burden was no longer a burden. It was essential.

And Joel wouldn't bear another loss. No one would harm Ellie.

This kid, for real.

He wished Sarah could have met Ellie. They would have felt like sisters.

"Hey, Joel. You fallin' asleep there?"

Joel blinked at the sound. He wasn't caught off guard, but by the glint of achievement on Ellie's eyes, he might as well have been.

"Nothing. I was thinking."

"Yeah, I thought I smelled something burning. It's always fishy, around these parts," she grinned. "Well while you're  _thinking_ like that _,_ you just may let someone shoot you in the head. What good would it be then, right?"

"We haven't seen anything for hours now."

"Good thing. But I've got you back. What would you do without me, huh?"

Joel scoffed. What indeed.

.

the end

.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, please point out mistakes and review please. Thanks to avearia for the correction!


End file.
